NASCAR: Keselowski wins Cup Series pole at Texas

Brad Keselowski will lead the field to green for Sunday’s Cup Series playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as he won his first pole since 2019 with a fastest lap of 188.990 mph in Saturday’s qualifying session. The pole win for RFK Racing follows up on the momentum built from Chris Buescher’s win at Bristol Motor Speedway last weekend.

This is the 2012 series champion’s 18th career pole. He is looking for his first NASCAR Cup Series win at Texas Motor Speedway.

“It’s certainly a lot of progress,’’ Keselowski said, adding, “You do things in this sport and it takes six to eight months to be noticed. It takes months and months of hard work for it all to come together and it’s super painful.”

It will be in all-Ford front row Sunday as Joey Logano joins his former teammate on the front row.

William Byron, Tyler Reddick and Michael McDowell will start inside the top five while Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Daniel Suárez make up the rest of the top 10 in the starting lineup.

Six playoff drivers will start outside the top 10: Austin Cindric (11th), Ross Chastain (12th), Ryan Blaney (14th), Alex Bowman (17th), Christopher Bell (22nd), Chase Briscoe (30th).

Despite being the most-consistent playoff driver in the Round of 16, Bell will have to work through the field to hold his spot above the current playoff cutline as he sits just four points above it.

Starting Lineup